EDITOR: Wisconsin politics will be even more partisan and contentious with the departure of four moderate state senators, who will likely be replaced by more ideological lawmakers. The retirements of Democratic Sens. Bob Jauch and Tim Cullen and Republican Sens. Dale Schultz and Mike Ellis do not bode well for harmony at our State Capitol.

I served in the state Senate with Cullen and Ellis; Jauch replaced me when I decided not to run for a fifth term in 1986; and Schultz was my former legislative aide. All four gentlemen were honorable public servants who often put partisan politics aside for the good of Wisconsin.

The partisan caucuses in both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature are drifting, election by election, to extreme ideological corners, which leaves little room for bi-partisan cooperation. The Republican caucuses are getting more extremely conservative and the Democratic caucuses are getting more extremely liberal.

There is a reason for this: It's called redistricting. After the 2010 Census, Republicans in control of the Legislature redrew legislative lines to maximize districts that would elect Republicans and minimize those that would elect Democrats. When Democrats were in control of the state Legislature, they did the same thing in reverse. In truth, voters are no longer choosing who they can elect because the politicians have already chosen who can vote for them.

It's time for the people of Wisconsin to rise up against this affront to representative democracy. It's time that redistricting be placed in the hands of a nonpartisan body that puts the people above politics.

Dan Theno,

former Republican state senator, 25th District,

Green Bay

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Former GOP state senator: Partisanship is poisonous. We need redistricting reform.

EDITOR: Wisconsin politics will be even more partisan and contentious with the departure of four moderate state senators, who will likely be replaced by more ideological lawmakers. The retirements of

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